Mr. E. H. Stetson will call on you," ca.1899-1949, from Weymouth Public Libraries, Tufts Library.
“Mr. E. H. Stetson will call on you,” ca.1899-1949, from Weymouth Public Libraries, Tufts Library.

This summer kicks off with some awesome new Massachusetts collections added to the Digital Commonwealth! Check them out:

Bentley University

Bentley University Historic Photograph Collection : 500 items

Boston Public Library

Anti-Slavery (Collection of Distinction) : 2993 items added to an existing collection

Grove Hall Memory Project : 75 items

Shakespeare (Collection of Distinction) : 1 item

Lawrence Public Library

15 new collections : 98 items

Perkins School for the Blind

Historic Stereographs : 29 items

Students with Deafblindness at the Perkins School for the Blind : 263 items

Philips Academy Andover

Abbot Academy Photographs : 529 items added to an existing collection

Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Library

Harvested Collections: 234 new items

Weymouth Public Libraries, Tufts Library

Stetson Shoe Company Photographs : 26 items

WGBH

The Lowell Institute Cooperative Broadcasting Council and WGBH Program Guides, 1949 – 1969 : 230 items

 

 

 

 

 

This month we added some great collections from several libraries, archives, and museums. Check out some of the new things you can now find in the Digital Commonwealth!

Lucy Vincent Beach from Harvard Forest Archives
Lucy Vincent Beach from Harvard Forest Archives

Harvard Forest Archives

Harvard Forest Martha’s Vineyard Collection – 169 items

Perkins School for the Blind

Anne Sullivan Photograph Collection – 34 items

Laura Bridgman Collection – 180 items

Perkins Postcards – 98 items

Photos of Helen Keller in the Middle East – 20 items

Springfield College Archives and Special Collections

Cliff Smith YMCA Postcard Collection – 4236 items

University of Massachusetts Lowell Libraries

21542 newly harvested items

USS Constitution Museum

War of 1812 Collection – 1 item added to existing collection

Wilbraham Public Library

Wilbraham Public Library Glass Plate Negatives Collection – 70 items added to existing collection

 

By Trish Cassisi

Pheasants (pair), carved by Russell Pratt Burr, ca. 1930-1955
Pheasants (pair), carved by Russell Pratt Burr, ca. 1930-1955.

When I attended the Digital Commonwealth conference in 2014, I was focused on digitizing our Yarmouth town reports dating back to the 1860’s, but, I began re-thinking that by the end of the conference. Tom Blake talked about digitizing items other than text-only resources and it encouraged me to go back to my library and look for something “out of the box” to digitize.

As it turned out, a carved bird collection that had been donated to the town in 1955 in memory of Ann Castonguay by her parents, needed to be relocated from a school in town.  The collection was placed in our West Yarmouth branch library, which was also donated to Yarmouth by Mr. and Mrs. Harold Castonguay.  The collection of 40 miniature painted birds was carved by the renowned bird carver Russell Pratt of Hingham.

Thinking this collection would be perfect, I sent in my request to the BPL and soon received a visit from the BPL team to assess the collection.  In June of 2015, they were packed up and transported to the BPL. By October, all the metadata (which sounds difficult, but it wasn’t) had been submitted and the carved birds were back at the West Yarmouth Library by the end of October.  By December, the collection went live on the website and the photographs are beautiful.

Mallard (pair), carved by Russell Pratt Burr, ca. 1930-1955.
Mallard (pair), carved by Russell Pratt Burr, ca. 1930-1955.

To celebrate the Castonguay carved bird collection, there will be birding programs throughout 2016, including a bird carving demonstration, a presentation from an Audubon Naturalist, and children’s bird related programming, too.  It was a very easy process and the BPL staff couldn’t have been more helpful.  Start looking at your collections for a unique digitization project; you will be thrilled with the end product.  Good luck!